Kings left wing Brendan Leipsic has four goals and 17 points in 48 games since being acquired in December. The Kings are the 25-year-old’s fifth organization, so he knows he could be on the move again between now and next week’s NHL trade deadline. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

EL SEGUNDO — The NHL trade deadline is next Monday. It might as well be one of those unofficial Canadian holidays, like John Candy’s birthday.

Fans peer into their phones for any sign of life, as the sports studios arrange their triple-panel discussions. Correspondents migrate to the front office doors throughout Canada. It’s the most fun one can have until July 1, known colloquially as Stupid Contract Day in the hockey world.

It won’t be much fun in Southern California. We’re looking at a no-playoff spring for the first time since 2004. Even though the Stanley Cup contenders must be taking a look or two at Jonathan Quick, there might be little local movement on Monday. Few outlying clubs are terribly interested in helping the Kings and Ducks reorganize.

For Brendan Leipsic, it’s just another day in which he might be forced to call another landlord, get his mail forwarded, figure out how to gather all the breadcrumbs of forced relocation.

The left winger is 25 and the Kings are his fifth organization. At last year’s deadline, Leipsic was loving life as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights. They were having the best debut season of any expansion team in the history of pro sports, and Leipsic was getting minutes. Then Vancouver sent Philip Holm to the Knights and got Leipsic in exchange. Some dreams die in a text message.

“It was a season like no other,” Leipsic said Monday at the Kings’ skate, before they played Washington at Staples Center.

“It was fun watching those guys make their playoff run (to the Stanley Cup Final). But it was tough at Vancouver because they were losing, and I wasn’t playing as much.”

The Canucks waived Leipsic and the Kings picked him up in December. He has four goals and 17 points in 48 games. He also is playing nearly 14 minutes per game. His speed and playmaking ability have survived all the moves, from being drafted by Nashville, to being traded to Toronto in a four-man deal that brought Cody Franson to the Predators, to becoming available in the expansion draft.

“I’ve experienced all this before,” Leipsic said. “It’s already happened to me twice at the deadline. You’ll probably hear it from a lot of guys, but you control what you can control.

“I’ve been here for a few months, had a little success. Probably not produced as much as I’d like, but it’s been a good situation. Obviously, I don’t want to leave.”

Leipsic’s ability, speed and youth will buy him a few more rides on this carousel. With the Toronto Marlies, the Maple Leafs’ affiliate, he piled up 54 points in 65 games. With the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League, Leipsic became a 100-100 man, with 120 points and 111 penalty minutes.

At 5-foot-10, Leipsic’s capacity for mischief-making drew some comparisons to Brad Marchand, the Boston All-Star. “That’s a great thing for people to say,” Leipsic said, “although I’m nowhere near that level. If you’re my size, you have to do the little things to stay up here. Sometimes the points total from junior hockey doesn’t always translate, but I’m still able to make plays.”

In a WHL playoff series five years ago, Leipsic decided to take a swig from the goaltender’s water bottle. That’s unusual anyway, but this time the goaltender was Payton Lee, of the Vancouver Giants.

He also had three suspensions in one season. The third one cost him time in the league finals against Kelowna, after Leipsic had speared Tyrell Goulbourne.

Once upon a time, everyone had a shift-disturber, a Maxim Lapierre or a Claude Lemieux or an Alex Burrows who used antagonism as a tool. Not as many clubs value such behavior these days. Leipsic has only 22 penalty minutes this season, probably at the request of the Kings. “I’m not looking for stuff like that on this level,” he said. “You still play hard, finish your checks, play with an edge out there, but I’m not running around looking for it.”

Leipsic’s mother, the former Kathleen Finnegan, was on the Canadian gymnastics team that competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The family lives in Winnipeg, where Leipsic’s grandmother Brenda was a city council member and deputy mayor.

If history serves, Leipsic will be telling those stories again, at another locale. He will know he’s in trouble when the calls stop coming.

As for the Kings, they came into Monday night with a 23-29-8 record, which means very few of the personnel are essential.